


well, we can all learn things both many and a few

by beautifullybarbaric



Series: there is no place like home when you got no place to go [5]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, Hurt Upgraded Connor | RK900, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Recovery, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Is Bad at Feelings, Whump, david cage is a coward and i will defeat him through sheer will alone, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 11:22:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20045173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifullybarbaric/pseuds/beautifullybarbaric
Summary: Before he could turn, the worst pain Richard had ever experienced erupted across his sensors. Starting at the back of his neck and quickly spreading to every inch of his body. It felt like he was being split open, hot wires ripping across his exposed synthetic nerves.He tried to scream. But he couldn't. As soon as it had come, the pain was gone. As was the sensation of the ground beneath his feet, his sight, his hearing. None of his senses were working. Not one. Like he was drifting in nothingness. It wasn't like he was seeing nothing but blackness, but there was a complete absence of anything at all.After being badly injured, Richard's recovery was taking a very long time.





	well, we can all learn things both many and a few

**Author's Note:**

> title is from "the moss" by cosmo sheldrake

_ **June 11th, 2038** _

Reed looked afraid. Richard screwed his face up in confusion. What was wron-

"Richard! Behind y-" Behind him-

Before he could turn, the worst pain Richard had ever experienced erupted across his sensors. Starting at the back of his neck and quickly spreading to every inch of his body. It felt like he was being split open, hot wires ripping across his exposed synthetic nerves.

He tried to scream. But he couldn't. As soon as it had come, the pain was gone. As was the sensation of the ground beneath his feet, his sight, his hearing. None of his senses were working. Not one. Like he was drifting in nothingness. It wasn't like he was seeing nothing but blackness, but there was a complete absence of anything at all.

There was... Just nothing there. Emptiness. Richard wanted to call out for help, but he couldn't. Was the Detective okay? He hoped he was okay. Richard couldn't... Help. He...

The nothingness was becoming oppressive. He tried to get system readings, but nothing was coming up.

It was not cold. It was not warm. It was empty.

So empty.

How long had he been floating in the darkness now? His timer wasn't working. Was he getting help? Was he okay? Was the Detective safe?

There was... Nothing there.

_ **July 8th, 2038** _

He could tell the time again. Richard could have sobbed with relief. So much time had passed since the incident. Almost a whole month. He still couldn't feel anything. But at least knew when it was. 

_ **July 12th, 2038** _

His GPS was back online, now. He was in New Jericho. He was safe, he guessed. Richard found himself to feel very... Lonely. He missed his coworkers, even the ones that would jab and insult him. He missed spending his Friday evenings watching movies with North and Connor. He missed his _cat. _He hoped somebody was looking after her. There was no way that all of his friends could have forgotten about her. At least one of them had to be taking care of her.

_ **July 30th, 2038** _

He heard something.

It was all static. Sharp and snapping. But it was something. A heavy, hazy hum that snarled and crackled at his ears. It was something. He clutched to it. The only sense he had at the moment. Before, a noise like that would have made him clutch the sides of his head in pain. It was unpleasant, but it was there. He was alive.

_ **August 12th, 2038** _

He had been able to hear without obstruction for the past eleven days, two hours, eight minutes, and five seconds. Richard could hear people moving about. Nurses, patients. There was a high pitched clicking noise that would chatter every once and a while. He wondered what that could be.

Richard came to know the other androids in the recovery bay by the way they spoke and moved. There was an android with a broken voice that sounded like he dragged one of his legs behind him. There was the head nurse, who spoke kindly to all of those under her care, but never undermined them. It was through her that he learned most of the other's names. The android with the twisted leg and destroyed voice box, for example, was named Konstantin. He also learned that the clicking noise was in fact an android who had her voice box ripped out and the gap it left crudely filled back up. So it could never be repaired. She called herself by just her model, PM700, and was quite insistent on it. 

There were others, too. An android with no legs where the joints where legs were supposed to be connected had been fused shut, much like PM700's throat, who was named Ermelinde. Ermelinde, Konstantin, and PM700 seemed to know each other. Know each other well. They were the only three permanent patients. They had been here for longer than him, and they likely would be here until the day they died.

He hoped he would not be like that. He wanted to get back to who he was.

He also wished he could talk to them.

_ **August 30th, 2038** _

He could feel. 

It had started with pins and needles, and had slowly morphed into real touch. And, eventually, he could move. Only a little. A twitching finger. A blink. He still could not see. Richard wished he could see. But he still could not see. Priscilla, the head nurse, had noticed that he was starting to move. She was able to find out that he could hear, and was able to have a small conversation with him.

_"Blink twice for yes, once for no."_

_ **September 5th, 2038** _

He still could not speak nor could he see, but Richard could move properly. He was.... Happy. Connor came to visit him almost every day. Including today.

"Hey." His pseudo-brother sighed. Richard could hear him sitting down. Richard sat up. "How are you doing?"

Blink, blink, blink. Pause. Blink, blink, blink. Pause. Blink. A longer pause. Blink, blink, blink. Pause. Blink, blink, blink. Pause. Blink, blink, blink. Pause. Another longer pause. Blink, blink, blink. Pause. Blink, blink, blink. Pause. Blink, blink, blink, pause. One final longer pause. Blink, blink, blink. Pause. Blink. Pause. Blink. Pause.

"Good?" Connor asked for confirmation. Richard nodded.

Connor sighed. Richard tilted his head to the side and raised his eyebrows, asking a question.

"I won't be able to visit you for about a month, alright? I'm going to be in DC. I'll be back soon." Connor patted him on the shoulder. "I promise."

Richard smiled at him.

"Goodbye, Nines." He could hear Connor stand back up.

_ **September 12th, 2038** _

  
His vision was crackling like static. Similar to the way his hearing had first begun. Richard was eager to see again. He wanted to learn more about what the other patients looked like. And the nurses. He hoped it would clear just as fast as his hearing had. In fifty five seconds, fifty one minutes, twenty one hours, and one day.

_ **September 13th, 2038** _

He enjoyed being able to see again.

Ermelinde, Konstantin, and PM700 were far different than he imagined. He imagined them looking like every other android. Maybe missing some synthetic skin. But they weren't. Bits of their synthetic skin and chassis were unnatural colors. All three of their irises were amber. PM700 was practically half-bestial. Their bodies were beyond warped. Priscilla was similar, in a way. The oddly-dyed body. Strange gaps in her body. But to a far lesser degree than the others.

He felt bad for them.

_ **September 29th, 2038** _

When he tried to speak that day, as he tried every morning, his voice let out a haze of garbled noise. He... He was excited now. It seemed that he was almost better. Almost all the way back to normal. He realized, jarringly, that he had been recovering for more of his short life than he had not. He had only woken up in late March, after all. He had been awake for seven months and spent four of them injured. 

Richard couldn't wait to change that. To make it so he had been living his life as he had before for far longer than he had spent recovering.

He couldn't wait.

_ **October 11th, 2038** _

Richard had been completely healed for the past week. And, finally, Captain Fowler agreed to let him come back to work. He'd put on his work clothes, the same he always wore. And called an auto-taxi. He didn't feel like walking that day. Richard timed when he left his apartment so he would get there ten minutes early. As loathe as he was to leave Min so soon after he had gotten back.

When he finally got there, he'd entered the building and checked in. The same way he always had. The receptionist grinned.

"It's good to see you back, Detective." The man said.

"It's good to be back." He replied, walking into the bullpen and sitting down at his computer. He quickly interfaced with it, checking to see if Reed had any cases. Richard knew that they were still partners, so he figured that they would be working togethe-

"Holy shit!" A familiar voice yelled from the doorway to the break room. Richard lifted his head as Reed slammed a hand down on his shoulder. "You _asshole._"

"Hello, Detective." He replied, standing up.

"I was worried about you, you prick." Reed jabbed, genuine relief on his face. "You just... Phcking stopped moving. If your little... Light thing wasn't going I would have thought you were dead."

"I am glad I am not dead, Detective." Richard replied, blinking.

"I'm glad too, asshole." He walked over to his own terminal, sitting down with a steaming styrofoam cup of coffee. "We have a case. Homicide."

"Not another Red-Blood murder?" Richard said gingerly, settling back down into his chair.

"Moore ratted on his buddies. They're all locked up now." Reed replied, taking a long sip of the steaming coffee.

"That's good." He sighed in relief, returning to his work.

**Author's Note:**

> in case it wasnt obvious: PM700, Konstantin, Priscilla, and Ermelinde are all Zlatko experiments. I plan on writing a fic about them from PM700's pov. Maybe that's what I'll do next! But I also finished planning that giant AU fic ya'll wanted so I'll do that first lmao.


End file.
